New York composer Missy Mazzoli (born 1980) describes her 2013 Los Angeles Philharmonic commission Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) as ‘music in the shape of a solar system, a collection of rococo loops that twist around each other within a larger orbit. The word “sinfonia” refers to baroque works for chamber orchestra but also to the old Italian term for a hurdy-gurdy, a medieval stringed instrument with constant, wheezing drones that are cranked out under melodies played on an attached keyboard. It’s a piece that churns and roils, that inches close to the listener only to leap away at breakneck speed, in the process transforming the ensemble turns into a makeshift hurdy-gurdy, flung recklessly into space.’

Performed live as part of Dvořák’s New World on 4 November 2022 at Federation Concert Hall, nipaluna / Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

PROGRAM
Missy Mazzoli, Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)

Conductor: Eivind Aadland
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra